OPPD’s peregrine falcon chick has a name!

We asked our customers to vote on a name for Omaha Public Power District's newest peregrine falcon chick, and you did egg-sactly that. She hatched during the second week of May atop a stack at the utility's North Omaha Station. 

OPPD employees submitted a list of possible names for their newest addition, determined to be a girl during a recent banding process. Ideas ranged from those electricity- and geography-themed to those paying tribute to a great aviator and a Greek goddess. The names were then put to a public vote. 

Of the nearly 1,700 votes received, our customers overwhelmingly chose “Beak,” with 791 votes. The next closest name was Florence with 253 votes. Our chick’s full name is “Beak Randby,” a play on the name of local television meteorologist Bill Randby. While she can’t forecast the weather (that we know of), she does spend a great deal of time observing it from her nest. And she certainly loves the camera, as evidenced by her livestream at OPPD.com/FalconLive. 

Beak is certainly something to squawk about. Her parents, Lewis and Clark, were born at the state capitol in 2012 and settled into OPPD's raptor box overlooking the Missouri River in 2015. Many watched as Clark laid four eggs last month. Beak is the sole survivor, the first chick to be successfully hatched by her parents since 2022. 

Beak is growing quickly. She has been plucking away the down feathers that kept her warm when she was smaller. She’s also been stretching her wings and moving around on her platform more (sometimes out of the camera’s view). She’s getting ready to take her first flight any day now.  

Lewis and Clark have produced and raised many chicks since 2015. The most recent were Storm, Flickr, Flash, Volta, Watt, Ohm, Ampere, Thunder and Lightning, which all hatched between 2020 and 2022. To read more about our family of peregrines, including some cool facts, visit OPPDTheWire.com.